French Aviator Captain Detroyat – Prepares for East-to-West Transatlantic Flight Attempt (Le Bourget to New York)

This striking vintage press photograph shows French pilot Captain Detroyat with his aeroplane, poised for an ambitious east-to-west transatlantic flight from Le Bourget to New York. The typed caption notes that he was preparing to depart “in a few days” from Paris, shortly after Lindbergh’s historic solo crossing of 1927. The east-to-west attempt was far more difficult than Lindbergh’s west-to-east route, due to stronger prevailing headwinds.

The image features a close-up inset portrait of Captain Detroyat superimposed on the print — a typical 1920s press photo editing style. The aircraft itself, parked on a muddy field with onlookers and mechanics nearby, displays a radial engine mounted at the nose and reinforced bracing struts, emphasizing the scale and daring of such a long-distance flight.

Captain Detroyat was among several European aviators inspired by Lindbergh’s feat, but very few succeeded in the opposite direction during this golden age of record-breaking flights. These photographs capture the publicity and international competition around early oceanic aviation, when each flight carried both immense danger and global prestige.

Historical Value: Press photos of would-be transatlantic challengers are far rarer than Lindbergh-related material. Detroyat’s planned flight represents the feverish atmosphere of 1927–1928, when nations and aviators competed for glory in aviation’s most perilous test. This makes the photo set historically significant as a document of the lesser-known but equally bold attempts to tame the Atlantic in its hardest direction.